INDIAN MUSIC FORUM ARCHIVES: Sitar Forum: Raga or scale?

Hi, I'm new here, I don't play the sitar but I am saving my money up for one. I do play the guitar and oboe. Anyways my I got in a debate with the bassoon player in band today and was wondering if you guys could help me out. I argued that while raga had some characteristics of a western scale it wasn't the same. He said that a raga was simply the Indian version of the scale. I know that you can't form chords on ragas, whereas Western scales are based almost entirely on forming chords. Also there aren't accidentals in ragas. It seems to me that both supply the melody, yet ragas have more restrictions attached to them. This seems to me enough of a difference to make them comparable, but different. Correct me if I'm completely wrong. What do you guys think?Thanks

The rag is the most important concept that any student of Indian music should understand. The Hindi/Urdu word "rag" is derived from the Sanskrit "raga" which means "colour, or passion" (Apte 1987). It is linked to the Sanskrit word "ranj" which means "to colour" (Apte 1987). Therefore rag may be thought of as an acoustic method of colouring the mind of the listener with an emotion. This is fine as a general concept but what is it musically? It is not a tune, melody, scale, mode, or any concept for which an English word exists. It is instead a combination of different characteristics. It is these characteristics which define the rag. Here are the characteristics.

There must be the notes of the rag. They are called the swar. This concept is similar to the Western solfege.

There must also be a modal structure. This is called that in North Indian music and mela in carnatic music.

There is also the jati. Jati is the number of notes used in the rag.

There must also be the ascending and descending structure. This is called arohana /avarohana.

Another characteristic is that the various notes do not have the same level of significance. Some are important and others less so. The important notes are called vadi and samavadi

There are often characteristic movements to the rag. This is called either pakad or swarup.

In addition to the main characteristics of rag, there are some other less important ones. For instance ragas have traditionally been attributed to particular times of the day. They have also been anthropomorphize into families of male and female rags (raga, ragini, putra raga, etc.). There is a tendency to downgrade the importance of these aspects due to their irrational and unscientific nature.